Department of Art History, The University of Chicago
ARTstor is pleased to announce that 2,000 images from the Library of Congress “Eyes of the Nation” collection are now available through the ARTstor Digital Library. This collection provides a pictorial overview of American history and includes prints, posters, maps, manuscript pages, photographs, design, movie stills, and cartoons.
Booker T. Washington, ca. 1895
From the Aluka website:
Aluka, a not-for-profit, collaborative and international initiative, announces the release of its online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa. ‘Aluka’ is derived from a Zulu word meaning ‘to weave,” reflecting Aluka’s mission to connect resources and scholars from around the world.
Aluka’s partners have contributed materials ranging from archival documents, periodicals, books, reports, manuscripts, and reference works, to three-dimensional models, maps, oral histories, plant specimens, photographs, and slides. The African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes database links high-quality visual, contextual, and spatial documentation. The Aluka digital library includes photographs, 3D models, GIS data, site plans, aerial and satellite photography, images of African rock art, excavation reports, manuscripts, traveller’s accounts, historical and antiquarian maps, books, articles, and other scholarly research.
This resource is available at the University of Chicago on a trial basis until December 31, 2007. Please direct comments to Rob Pleshar in the University Libraries or to the VRC.
From the Paris-Bourbon County Public Library:
Sometimes hidden treasure turns up in unexpected places – such as your own front door, or the public library of a small town in Kentucky. The Paris-Bourbon County Public Library is proud to announce the discovery – right on its own doorstep – of a “lost” fine art work entitled The Bride of Spring, a sculpture created by Edmonia Lewis in the late 1870s.
For more than 30 years, visitors to the Paris-Bourbon County Public Library in Paris, Kentucky, routinely passed through a small, bright entry foyer – rarely giving a thought to the graceful white statue tucked into a corner by the door. Dressed in flowing veils decorated with floral garlands, this “pretty lady” guarded the library entrance in relative obscurity, drawing occasional glances of admiration and sometimes serving as a prop for seasonal decorations or children’s games.
In late 2006, Estill Curtis Pennington, an internationally-known fine arts historian and consultant, returned to Bourbon County from abroad and visited the library. Though he had passed by the statue many times in the past, something on this visit piqued Pennington’s curiosity and he decided to make a closer inspection; an inscription on its base led to positive identification. The Bride of Spring – also known as The Veiled Bride of Spring – is of carved marble, and stands 48” tall including the attached platform base. It is in overall good condition and is now protected by a custom-made glass display box.
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New technology will link digital images to create three-dimensional models with incredible zoom capabilities.
Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo:
ARTstor and the University of Michigan will digitize slides from the archive associated with Asian Art Photographic Distribution, which focuses on the art of East Asia. Areas strongly represented in the archive include Chinese painting, sculpture, bronzes and ceramics, Central Asian Art, and Japanese painting. Many of the objects represented in the archive are richly documented with details.
ARTstor has just added 301 images of Greek, Hellenistic and Roman sculptures from the Collection of Classical Antiquities at the Berlin State Museums.
The VRC has completed all Spring orders. This is an excellent time to submit image requests for summer and autumn quarters. We also accept requests to build the general collection. If you notice an area of the collection that needs improvement, now is the best time to let us know. Contact us or submit an Image Order Form.
From the Steve Website:
“Steve” is a collaborative research project exploring the potential for user-generated descriptions of the subjects of works of art to improve access to museum collections and encourage engagement with cultural content. We are a group of volunteers, primarily from art museums, who share a common interest in improving access to our collections. We are concerned about barriers to public access to online museum information. Participation in steve is open to anyone with a contribution to make to developing our collective knowledge, whether they formally represent a museum or not.
What’s New in ARTstor
Two Archives from the Negative Collection at the Frick Art Reference Library – The first archive consists of over 3,000 images produced by the Italian photographic firm of Sansoni and richly documents fresco cycles and other forms of architectural decoration throughout Italy. The second archive, from A.C. Cooper and related archives, documents paintings as they passed through art auction galleries in London in the 1920s and 1930s.
Tips & Tools
Recorded Online Tutorials Now Available – Are you interested in ARTstor training? ARTstor introduces online training tutorials available for all ARTstor users at any time of day.
Sharing ARTstor Images and Image Groups through URL Links – Did you know that you can share ARTstor images or image groups with students or colleagues from your course website? Each image in ARTstor and every image group you create have stable URLs associated with them. The URLs can be emailed, embedded in Word or PowerPoint documents, or added as a link to online syllabi or resource lists. Just go to Share > Generate Image URL or Share > Generate Image Group URL.
NSIT has issued an advisory concerning Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista. Salient points:
To read the full announcement, click here. If you have questions, please contact the NSIT Support Line at
support@uchicago.edu or 4-TECH (773-834-8324).